Swift
by mwang
Summary: What if you were lost...in time? To get back home to your loved ones, what would you sacrifice? Manny, Sid, Diego and Peaches will all be forced to answer these questions on the job after the unthinkable happens.It's dangerous outside, and only the swift can survive.Genre Humor/Family/SciFi. K plus for mild rude humor. Better than it sounds! (c) BSS
1. Chapter 1: Gone!

I don't own Ice Age! I'm baaaack! Here's that story I wrote a trailer for!

* * *

Peaches woke up only because someone was shaking the ground and shouting. "Get out of here!" "Peaches wake up, the cave is collapsing!"

Well, with that having been said, Peaches woke up promptly and bolted for the door, grabbing a screaming Crash and Eddie along the way. Rocks were tumbling everywhere, but if was hard to see them because outside it was hailing.

"Run, Peaches!" screamed Ellie.

"What about you?" screeched Peaches in reply as she was thrown off of her feet.

"We'll catch up to you!" shouted Diego, his voice muffled by something. Not reassured, she reluctantly obeyed and hightailed it out of there.

After a few minutes of running half blind through the forest, She heard footsteps. Diego bounded in front of her, and she caught sight of Shira doing to same from the other side of her. Diego skidded to a halt and Manny caught up to them breathlessly. Peaches noticed something fall out of Diego's mouth, and she briefly noted that it was Sid. Diego went back to check on Ellie. Close behind the female mammoth was an odd moving trail of dirt that signified that Louis was coming as well. Before those three would catch up, though, thunder boomed. Peaches looked up in time to hear more thunder and see a bolt of lightning headed straight for her face. She was not aware of the spiderweb of electricity filling the entire sky, an unexplained phenomenon that would cause humans of the time to worry about bad omens. Later, they would start to proclaim end of the world theories, but Peaches was unaware of this.

Everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2: The Foul-mouthed street rat

Peaches blinked, her whole body sore. Snow covered the landscape surrounding her, with patches of grass shooting out here and there. Someone groaned.

"Sorry!" she cried, forcing herself to get up. When the dizziness in her head cleared, she looked down to see a frazzled looking creature dusting itself off.

"It's okay," Peaches immediately noticed three things upon hearing his voice. A) it was a him, B) he was stifling a groan, so he was obviously not okay, and C) he was a weasel, which she didn't realize from his voice...But she looked at him when he spoke.

"No it's not."

She was startled by his blue eyes when he looked up at her. Fierce, sharp, and annoyed. If she weren't a mammoth, she might have blushed. The smaller creature rolled his eyes.

"And jus' what would _you_ know about it? Ever been hit by a flying mammoth? No? I didn' think so," the weasel's voice dripped with British-accented sarcasm. Peaches could practically see it oozing from his mouth. Peaches took this as her cue to roll her own eyes.

"I highly doubt you've ever been hit by a flying mammoth," she said with equal sarcasm. That's when it struck her. "Oh."

He gave her a pointed look. "Yeah. Pray tell, what were ya doin' up there, preyin' on innocent lads such as myself?"

Peaches blushed. "I wasn't preying on you, and I wasn't flying. I just...fell."

"Right. Just fell. Out of the sky." Suddenly he stood up and grinned. In a mock weather reporter voice, he cried, "Cloudy, with a high chance of scattered storms. Watch out for those wooly mammoths!" He turned to her again, a look of pure innocence on his face. "Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?"

She gawked at him for a second. He grinned devilishly.

"Because your face pretty f_'d up."

Peaches gasped and glared at him, trying to formulate an answer to this that wouldn't make her seem like a total geek. She noticed his fur was scruffy and not the cleanest. While this could have been attributed to the whole falling-mammoth thing, she got the feeling this fellow wasn't exactly a "good boy."

"Excuse yourself!" came a feminine, similarly accented voice from the trees to her left. Good. Now she didn't have to answer. "Buckminster, you, you fiend! It's no wonder they call you a street rat, the way you talk!"

The weasel rolled his eyes. "Ah, Melody, we've been through this before! Don't act like _you_ talk like a bar o' soap." To Peaches, he said, "You know I didn't mean it right? I was kiddin'. You're face is fine. Friends?" He gave her a hopeful look. Something about this situation told her she'd better take any friendship she could get her hands on. Besides, he looked so hopeful, like he didn't get friends often. Still somewhat dazed from her fall, she gave him a small smile.

"There. All better. Now, where were we? Ah yes, falling from the heavens. Seriously, why? Why me? You think I don't have anything better to do with my life? That because I currently can't pay for college (which is fine, I've got myself a good 2 years before that's a problem) and I work for minimum wage I don't have places to be? People to see? A family to feed?" Buckminster (as Peaches guessed his name was) sighed melodramatically, laying a paw across his forehead.

'Melody' rolled her eyes. "Sorry 'bout him," she motioned to the boy," he's a bit of a dramatic pain. Anyways, I'm Melody, this is my brother, Buck, and you are...?"

"Peaches," she said uncertainly. Buck grinned.

"What, don't you know yer own name?"

"I do," she said angrily. To her self, she thought, 'And I think I know you, too.' But that's impossible, right? Mammoths can't fly AND time travel...?


	3. Chapter 3: Reality comes crashing down

Manny heard voices. Saw colors swimming across his vision. He felt pins and needles in every part of his body and winced as he moved his trunk.

"Manny? Manny...Manny, wake up. Manny..." Diego.

What happened?

He blinked and the saber's face came into focus. Diego breathed a sigh of relief. "I was worried for a second, there, Manny."

Manny tried to stand. "Don't be."

Then it occurred to him- what had happened.

"Peaches! Diego, where is she? Where the heck is Sid?"

Diego replied, "I don't know, but I have a funny feeling we'd better find out soon."

* * *

"You say ya fell?" Peaches frowned at the skeptical look on the she-weasel's face.

"To be honest...I don't really know what happened."

The twins shared a look. Peaches caught Buck's sing-song whisper, "Someone's a bit of a _loony_..."

"I am not!" she cried.

Buck began to count on his fingers, making level eye contact with her. Those _eyes_...

"Let's see. One, you come flying out o' nowhere, two, ya' can barely remember your name-"

"That's not true!" hissed Peaches.

"Three, you can't remember the day, year, or month, and you have little or not idea of what happened. On top of all that, you're all alone. What an adorable, completely sane little girl you are."

Peaches began to hyperventilate. This couldn't be happening. She was going crazy surrounded by crazy people who claimed it was 30 years in the past. She was alone with a boy who seemingly wanted to ruin her life (Melody had left soon after her appearance...).

Buck sensed he'd crossed a fine line. He hurriedly began to shush the hiccuping that had started in a soft voice. "Hey, hey, hey, don't cry. I don't do comforting crying mammoths. Stop. Your face will become even more unattractive."

Peaches tried to stop the tears of stress, but the last comment just fueled them. Buck looked at her worriedly.

"Come now, I was just playin'. No need for tears. Shhh, wipe them off. Pineapple? Mango? Banana, I command you to stop crying. Oh, blast it..."

Peaches furiously tried to stop the salty tears. "Peaches," she croaked.

"Peaches?" Peaches was surprised by the amount of tenderness in his voice.

"Peaches, what's wrong? You can't possible be so insecure to cry because I called ya crazy?" asked Buck, hesitantly placing a paw on her trunk. She shook her head. He prodded her.

"Because-I-am-c-crazy!" she cried out. "And lost! And alone!"

Buck looked partially relieved and partially stressed. "Lost? Oi, mate, we can fix that up in a jiff. Where are ya from?"

"Where am I?"

Buck sighed. "You know, it's rude to answer a question with a question..."

"Where. Am. I?" demanded Peaches forcefully, the tears ceasing instantly.

"Hetfordshire," the other teenager said hurriedly.

"Hetfordshire...?" Peaches gave him a meaningful look.

"England?" Buck said, looking puzzled by her ignorance.

"Oh. Oh. Oh no."

The world went black.

**Thanks for reviewing! **

**Please review, I own nothing except Melody!**


	4. Chapter 4: Hysteria and Determination

Peaches awoke to soft, worried murmurs. Her first guess was her mother, but the voice wasn't feminine enough. Uncle Diego? No...She blinked, saw the face, and screamed.

It was real. It wasn't a dream.

Buck jumped back, alarmed by Peaches' sudden shouting. Peaches stopped screaming long enough to get a good look at him and determine that no, this was not a dream within a dream. Then she screamed again. Buck tried quieting her down gently at first, but soon realized her hysteria was only growing.

"SHUT UP!"

The words seemed to echo, repeating themselves over and over, bouncing from tree to tree. Peaches was quiet.

"For a weasel, you have pretty big lungs," she commented.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he snapped. Instantly, he regained his composure. "Sorry."

Peaches was unnerved by how fast his emotions changed. She distracted herself by taking in the surroundings. White. Trees. Gray sky. Snow began to fall lightly.

"This is very cinematic," Buck commented absent mindedly. "The snow, the way the lighting makes everyone look softer and fuzzier and huggable..." Peaches raised an eyebrow. He cleared his throat. "Anyhow, I'd best be gettin' home. Do ya have someplace?"

Peaches flushed. "No. I don't know."

He nodded. "Ah, right, Mad Mammoth. Sigh," he sighed dramatically while saying the word, "if only I could pay to get me sister a proper schoolbook, I might be able to lend you a sixpence. Alas, I am but a poor beggar boy, and I can spare nothing, for I have nothing. Indeed, I am far below the poverty line."

"Was that really necessary?"

He laughed. "I like you. I'll see to it that ya have someplace semi-dry to sleep. Then you're on your own. I have my own issues."

He scampered off a ways through the wood, and Peaches followed. Sure, it wasn't smart to follow strangers, but how big of a threat could this tiny guy be? And he wasn't really a stranger, she knew him...Her uncle was much older than he was now, but she can concluded that yes, this was THE Buckminster. Which, unfortunately, would imply danger...

Peaches took her steps warily, slowing, and then stopping. Buck glanced behind him.

"Suit yourself."

He left. Evidently he had to plans to harm her, but his gallantry only went to a certain extent. Buck never looked back.

"Peaches," she whispered, "You are so stupid."

The snow began to fall harder now, and Peaches climbed a bushy tree and wept.

Far below, a long ways off, Diego caught the scent of something...something pungent.

Sid.

"Manny," he called, "I found Sid's trail."

Manny rushed over. "Oh, good. Is Peaches...?" Diego couldn't bear to deny the hopeful eyes. They were so desperate...

"No," he sighed. "But don't worry, we'll find her."

"How do you know?" Manny's face hardened.

Diego winced, but Manny didn't see. "I'm a hunter. I should know."

What a lie. Diego steeled himself. He would find Peaches, he would go to the ends of the earth to find her, because the look in his friend's eyes was too much for him to bear.

Time for another adventure.

* * *

**Review please! I own only my OC's. **


	5. Chapter 5: Revelations

Sorry I've been gone, fanfictioners! I was internet deprived. I won't able to upload for a while, though. Sorry.

I don't own ice age.

Speaking of fanfiction, I was browsing some of the older fanfictions, and stumbled across Locarian-Mode's Rising. I remember loving that fanfictio when I first joined...Does anyone know where she went?

Anyway, review please!

The wind began to pick up and snow blinded Peaches. She shivered. The night was long. At one point, she awoke to the shound of shattered ice, angry shouts, and cries of injury. Shadows loomed in every crevice of her imagination. Some time later, a baby wailed in the darkness of the night, and she heard whispers below her perch. The wind tossed and whipped the words away from her, and the snow shielded their faces, but if she squinted she could tell that one figure had dark fur, and the other a light colored pelt. They were possums, weasels, ferrets, or minks. She couldn't tell which.

As the snow ceased it's torrent and began to sprinkle down lightly, the clutches of sleep wrapped inky tenticles around her mind. She sunk down, deeper into the depths of wavering consiousness.

The sunlight streaming in through the treetops was surprisingly bright. Peaches stayed in the cover of the foliage for a while after she cracked open her eyelids. What would she do if she went down, anyway? Run around the town screaming time travel? Pester Buck until he cracked and sent her to an insane asylum? She smiled at the irony of the proposed situation- think of it! The soon-to-be insane calling her crazy.

The teenager's stomach growled, and with a growl of her own she climbed down to forage for food. Yawing, she trudged to what appeared to be the village square. It was packed with animals. She kept walking and found a small, gnarled apple tree. The apples were bitter, but she was starving. As she ate, she pondered her...situation. How could this have happened? The storm? The lightning? Was it all a vivid hallucination? And how odd that the first person she came across had been the weasel who saved her family's lives shortly before her , she was pretty sure that young Buck, in this situation was rather useless. He was her age, orphaned, a street rat with his own life and concerns, and he was a skeptic. An added bonus, he though she was rather touched in the head.

For some reason, she highly doubted that the weasel would be able to help her.

She meandered around, sometimes following other herbivores until she came across an orchard. It was small and meager, had a busload of people, and had a few workers preventing anybody from getting "too many" of anything. The workers were weasels, and the various visitors gave them dirty looks.

Among them was a she-weasel with light fur, bidding one of the workers (who could have easily been her older brother) goodbye, and following...

Buck.

He grabbed her hand and lead her...straight towards Peaches. Buck must not have seen her, though, because he stopped abruptly in front of her.

"Oh!" He said instinctively. "Sorry, miss. Excuse us," he added with a nonchalant grin. At the last minute, he tossed a puzzled look back at her that was laced with concern. Peaches gave him what she hoped was an equally nonchalant grin. Buck and the girl disappeared into the woods. Peaches couldn't help but wonder if they were sweethearts, and why did she have a persistant nagging feeling? It was almost like when you can't quite remember something, but still it hovers on the edge of your mind.

Was it the girl's eyes? The way she smiled at Buck? The way she'd smiled at Peaches? There was something familiar about her, but she couldn't quite place what it was.

Another question added itself to her growing list. Why were so many people gathered in one small apricot orchard? Was it possible that it was the only local food source? Finally she had a question that had an answer; a memory tugged at her mind.

'"Lassie, eat your greens," Buck had been telling her, wiping a paw across his forehead. He had joined the herd shortly after her sixth birthday, bringing with him...family? A friend? Peaches couldn't recall, even though she was sure that Buck and his...aquaintance had stayed for years, watching her grow older before they'd left. Or had he stayed? Peaches vividly recalled seeing him on her 12th birthday..."In the famine you'd be beggin' fer that."

"Famine?" Nine year old Peaches had asked.

"Twas in England- lasted about a year. Now eat," her uncle had forced a laugh.

That had to be it. But in replace of her recentl answered question, a new one arose.

Who was she forgetting, and why?


	6. Chapter 6: Searching in the Storm

Summer's too close to an end! Ah, well, at least I still have time for fanfiction! :) a few more weeks of bliss before it comes crashing down...What was the most memorable thing you did this summer? Any new traditions? Tell me in your reviews. Because I know you will review. *gives you creepy stare* I rode a horse for the first time...did some volunteering...had some revelations...and I wrote this chappie for ya!

So happy for all the reviews I got! Reviews are my writing oxygen!

I don't own Ice age...sigh.

The weather worsened, but Diego pressed on. Sid came to them in a pathetic, muddy ball of stink trying to light a fire during a hail storm beneath the cover of evergreens. Manny frowned when he heard his friend's hacking cough and sneezes, but couldn't do much for him. Peaches was still his main priority, and then...whatever came next.

They were together again. The trio that started it all. Originally three bachelors with three very different pasts, but now their family wasn't so small. Wasn't so simple. Oh, yes, it helped to have Sid, because Manny loved the sloth like a brother and worried over the clumsy mammal, but even with his closest friends at his side, something inside him hurt. The saber, mammoth and sloth were wound together tighter than rope, but at times he wondered if it had begun to fray. Surely it wasn't the same, because there were two knots tied now- one for Ellie and one for Shira; Ellie's possum brothers came into the mix, and there was Peaches. His lovely Peaches, his baby girl, his little darling, his adventurous teenager. His daughter who was all her own.

Manny felt the pain again, a dull knife digging itself into the cave of his ribs, worming between his lungs, piercing his heart. He immersed himself in the comfort of his longtime friends and pondered aloud what could have possibly happened.

Sid surprised Diego with his musings, "Maybe is was something we've done. Something we can correct. Or maybe it was just a wrong that needed to be righted and we happened to be in the right place at the right time."

Diego stared at the floppy green creature for a long minute.

"Sid," he replied, "That was the smartest sounding thing you've ever said to me. If you keep this up, you'll give me a heart attack."

Sid beamed and tripped over his own feet.

"But I don't get what you're saying."

"Don't you see, Diego?" Sid lisped. "We're time travelers! Clock astronauts going where no sub-zero heroes have gone before! Or we ate some bad sushi."

Diego pressed on, leaving Sid behind. Over his furry shoulder he called, "I think the sushi is more likely."

"It's probable!"

"I take back everything I said about an increase in your intelligence."

Sid wilted. Couldn't Diego see how the pieces of the puzzle fit together? But he was probably right. Maybe he was hallucinating. Or dreaming. He was prone to sleep long hours, after all. He scratched his back.

Just a nice, long dream.

-/-

Peaches spent the next few days in a state of confusion. The same questions demanded answers: How could this have happened? What was she supposed to do? Would she even be able to do anything? Her family, would she ever see them again?

She held tears behind a bitten lip and decided that maybe confronting Buck again might be a step in the right direction.

She asked an opossum, an ache welling up deep inside at the thought of her uncles, where Buck might be found.

"That street rat? What's a pretty mammoth like you want with 'im? Ah, no 'tis none o' my buisiness, he can be found down the aspen lane, or as of late anywhere near the grocer's daughter." The marsupial winked knowingly.

"Thank you," Peaches couldn't help but smile. She knew where to find the girl, at least. The aspen lane was a place unknown to her.

However, not wanting to have to pry too far into his private life, she decided the lane might be the better bet. She inquired, and found herself in front of a burrow in a hill beneath a grove of quaking aspen. It looked simple, but cozy enough. Certainly lived in, if the many pawprints leading up to and away from the small, wooden door were any clue. The teenager hesitantly knocked.

Surprise itself greeted her.


End file.
